Voters Are Determined To Dig In And Be Counted

MICHAEL MAYO COMMENTARY

Al Guilder, of Plantation, stood with his Bush/Cheney sign outside the main library in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Monday afternoon. He didn't like what he saw.

"It scares me a little," Guilder said.

He was scared because he knows a big turnout in Democrat-heavy Broward Country is bad news for his ticket.

He looked over the line snaking around the plaza, hundreds of voters waiting up to three hours at the early voting site. They waited in T-shirts and jeans, flip-flops and shorts, chef's outfits and power suits. They waited because they didn't want to face the unknown today.

"If you don't vote, you can't complain," Wirth said. "I just want to get the man out."

"The man" is President Bush, and the fact that a teenager said there was nothing he'd rather be doing on a sunny Monday in South Florida tells you everything you need to know about how motivated this electorate is.

An astounding 25 percent of Broward's million voters have already cast ballots through early voting and absentee ballots. About 500,000 more are expected to vote today.

No wonder Republicans might resort to gumming up the works at 777 Broward precincts, challenging certain voters' eligibility, perhaps causing gridlock, long delays and frustration today. If this election is as close as everyone thinks, getting voters to bail out might be their only hope.

But after the contested election of 2000 and the heated events of the last four years, it doesn't look like South Florida voters are budging.

Instead of getting frustrated over long lines at early voting sites or giving up because of missing absentee ballots, people seem more determined to dig in and make sure their votes count.

Take what happened at the Howard Forman Health Park in Pembroke Pines on Sunday. The polls were supposed to close at 4 p.m., but people in line wouldn't leave. It rained, but the people wouldn't leave. There were only eight machines, but the people wouldn't leave. Finally, at 11 p.m., after almost 700 had voted and the main computer link was shut for maintenance, 35 people who didn't vote had to leave.

At least they got another chance.

The same can't be said for out-of-towners who never got their absentee ballots.

McCoy, 41, of Margate, is working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in hurricane-ravaged Indian River County. He is a Republican and a Bush supporter. He was assured his absentee ballot would arrive by FedEx by Monday. It didn't.

McCoy cannot leave work to vote. "We're trying to get people back in their houses," said McCoy, who has been assigned to a housing task force with strict deadlines.

Sharon Rieck, of Fort Lauderdale, also can't be in South Florida to vote. She and husband Harry are setting up a new home and business in Maryland. She requested absentee ballots four times. On Saturday, her husband received two ballots -- one by mail and another by FedEx.

She still doesn't have any. The FedEx envelope didn't contain her ballot, as the elections office promised.

"They keep talking about the post office, but it wasn't the post office that sent only one ballot in the FedEx envelope," said Rieck, an independent who wanted to vote for Kerry. "This is a joke."

Desperate, Rieck took her husband's extra ballot and filled it in. On the envelope, she crossed out his name, wrote hers, and signed it with her voter's number and an affidavit that this was her only ballot.

She also wrote a brief explanation to the canvassing board that will examine the ballot later today. She ended with a simple plea: "Please honor my right to vote."

Today, the rest of us see if our rights are honored or trampled.

Michael Mayo can be reached at mmayo@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4508.